[ZeoRangerV]

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Originally Posted by GoseiWonder

Well, that explains why one of Moffat's brainchildren seems more like something out of a fairy tale than a naturally occurring species. Science Fantasy is always a bit difficult to do, since if you aren't careful, the science aspect will be stronger than the fantasy aspect rendering the fantasy aspect difficult to swallow.

Moffat does struggle to strike that balance, which is why quite a lot of people show disdain for his seasons (particularly 6 and 7). While I've always preferred the alien sci-fi side of Doctor Who, the fantasy element is good to have so that not everything has a rational explanation.

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Ah genetic modification/mutation, one of the Sci-Fi writer's favorite tools for explaining stuff. That works then. Though now I'm curious about why you'd bother putting a creature that you can't remember into a story. Are there beings that canremember them to balance it out?

Presumably the Church of Silents would be able to remember them, since they were the ones that created them. They weren't initially meant to be a confrontational species - that only happened when a sect of the church went a bit crazy and tried to kill the Doctor.

Mostly though, it plays on the notion that there's always something watching you even if you can't see/it remembering it. Moffat's main thing is taking simple childhood fears and then crafting a story around them.

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And yes, in concept Daleks, a species so xenophobic that they devoted their existance to wiping out the one thing that could stop them so the rest of the universe could be taken easier, is terrifying. But the main problem for me is just the design of the tank suits. The Sixties were FAR to campy for the idea of Daleks. If they looked like a mix of Diagnostic Drones from Beast Machines and a robotic jellyfish or something, yeah, then I'd be able to take them a bit more seriously initially. And yeah, they should be taken seriously. It's just that the design, albeit very iconic, just holds back the horror aspect. I know they can hover, but anything that rolls across flat surfaces and looks like it could be defeated by falling on its side I can't take seriously as a threat. How does one get back up after falling over?
Were the Daleks still genetically healthy back in the Gallifreyan Genocide and not in the suits yet? And are all the non-suit Dalek tech the retrofitted remnants of the ancient Dalek armies? The lack of arms makes it hard to belie they can still pilot or manufacture anything in their quest to EXTERMINATE!!!!

Well, the general idea is that you shouldn't be able to get near enough to a Dalek to knock it over but yeah, you knock one over and they aren't exactly much of a threat. Which is probably why the new series has build them up as looking much heavier and never actually shown them falling over unless their blowing up. The thing is if you knock over one, there's most likely another one right behind it killing you before you can celebrate.

They're arrogant enough to overlook their design flaws, but their sheer dedication to survival is what makes them so powerful a species.

The Time War stuff only happened between the classic and modern series (although parts of the classic series have been retroactively placed in its timeline), so yeah - they were in the cases when all that happened. So naturally all their tech is designed to work with the plunger arm (though there are alternate arms for different purposes - claws, cutting tools etc), which they've made a point of proving is far more powerful than it might look. For example...

Seconds later its then used to break a combination on a vault's button pad. Dalek was an exceptionally good episode for breaking down all the jokes modern audiences were going to have about the outdated design. The sucker arm is the one thing I wouldn't have minded them dropping for the new show, but they've made it work so far.